<entry id="2289964" stat="A" corpus="jmdict" type="jmdict">
<ent_corp type="jmdict">jmdict</ent_corp>
<ent_seq>2016980</ent_seq>
<k_ele>
<keb>分かりづらい</keb>
</k_ele>
<k_ele>
<keb>分かり辛い</keb>
</k_ele>
<r_ele>
<reb>わかりづらい</reb>
</r_ele>
<sense>
<pos>&adj-i;</pos>
<gloss>difficult to understand</gloss>
<gloss>difficult to grasp</gloss>
<gloss>confusing</gloss>
<gloss>puzzling</gloss>
</sense>
<info>
<audit time="2004-03-30 00:00:00" stat="A">
<upd_detl>Entry created</upd_detl>
</audit>
<audit time="2021-08-20 22:56:45" stat="A" unap="true">
<upd_name>Frazer Robinson</upd_name>
<upd_refs>Goog
分かり辛い	36884
分かりづらい	253177
わかりづらい	294735
KM
分かり辛い	939
分かりづらい	6998
わかりづらい	9103</upd_refs>
<upd_diff>@@ -5 +5 @@
-&lt;keb&gt;分かり辛い&lt;/keb&gt;
+&lt;keb&gt;分かりづらい&lt;/keb&gt;
@@ -8 +8 @@
-&lt;keb&gt;分かりづらい&lt;/keb&gt;
+&lt;keb&gt;分かり辛い&lt;/keb&gt;</upd_diff>
</audit>
<audit time="2021-08-20 23:19:59" stat="A">
<upd_uid>jwb</upd_uid>
<upd_name>Jim Breen</upd_name>
<upd_email>...address hidden...</upd_email>
</audit>
<audit time="2024-01-21 21:53:56" stat="A" unap="true">
<upd_name>Brian Krznarich</upd_name>
<upd_email>...address hidden...</upd_email>
<upd_detl>分かる has a lot of subtle meanings, not all of which fall under "understand", including the context I just encountered.

(pointing towards well-dressed men)人の偉いさは分かりづらい、だからああやって見た目で分かるようにするんだ。
trans: It's hard to tell which humans are important. So they dress themselves up to make it obvious.

My own intuition is to adds something like "difficult to discern/recognize" but I haven't found particular support for that.  "hard to tell" strikes me as the right sense, but doesn't quite map directly from :
nounは分かりづらい.  You can't say "importance is hard to tell" or "hard-to-tell importance".  You have to transform it into "it's hard to tell how important"....

eijiro has "confusing" in one context.  There's one reverso example of "puzzling".  I like both, but neither of these works for my specific example though, and it doesn't seem like an unusual use-case to me.

Hmm, google translates in isolation as "Confusing"

You might have some better ideas.</upd_detl>
<upd_refs>https://context.reverso.net/translation/japanese-english/%E5%88%86%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8A%E3%81%A5%E3%82%89%E3%81%84

Two hard-to-tell examples
https://context.reverso.net/translation/japanese-english/%E5%88%86%E3%81%8B%E3%82%8A%E3%81%A5%E3%82%89%E3%81%84#hard+to+tell

https://eow.alc.co.jp/search?q=%e5%88%86%e3%81%8b%e3%82%8a%e3%81%a5%e3%82%89%e3%81%84
分かりづらい専門用語
confusing terminology（使い方などが）

https://ameblo.jp/tricolorlanguage/entry-12496937944.html

「分かりづらい」＝“confusing”（カﾝフューズィﾝｸﾞ）
例：
“His explanation was so confusing.”
「彼の説明はとても分かりづらかった。」</upd_refs>
<upd_diff>@@ -15,0 +16,4 @@
+&lt;gloss&gt;difficult to discern&lt;/gloss&gt;
+&lt;gloss&gt;hard to tell&lt;/gloss&gt;
+&lt;gloss&gt;confusing&lt;/gloss&gt;
+&lt;gloss&gt;puzzling&lt;/gloss&gt;</upd_diff>
</audit>
<audit time="2024-01-25 10:29:08" stat="A">
<upd_uid>jwb</upd_uid>
<upd_name>Jim Breen</upd_name>
<upd_email>...address hidden...</upd_email>
<upd_detl>Tightening.</upd_detl>
<upd_refs>KOD</upd_refs>
<upd_diff>@@ -16,2 +16 @@
-&lt;gloss&gt;difficult to discern&lt;/gloss&gt;
-&lt;gloss&gt;hard to tell&lt;/gloss&gt;
+&lt;gloss&gt;difficult to grasp&lt;/gloss&gt;</upd_diff>
</audit>
</info>
</entry>